GREEN BAY, Wis. -- The Green Bay Packers might as well have put a flashing neon sign above the "safeties" column of their draft board entering the 2014 NFL draft. Nowhere else on the roster was there such a glaring area of need.
Having lost three-time Pro Bowler Nick Collins -- a still-ascending player who, according to coach Mike McCarthy, was on a Pro Football Hall of Fame trajectory -- to a career-ending neck injury in September 2011, the Packers had tried just about everything in an effort to replace him. Everything, of course, except spend a high draft pick on the position.